Now, Google gives you the Taj Mahal tour

Well, not quite. You know of Google’s impeccable mapping quality right? The way you see all the alleys, streets and routes to your secret haunts. Of course, if you’re looking at well-mapped places like the USA, you can just zoom in and have, at an instant, views of what it looks like on the streets. Ditto for their tourist locations. You can get high resolution images of famous tourist spots, and simulate your own web tour. Now, you can do all that with some great Indian heritage sites, too.

Google and the good old Archaeological Survey of India have teamed up to launch the navigation of the Taj Mahal and other important Indian monuments through the Street View feature. 

“With the support of the ASI, Google is releasing the first 360-degree online imagery of 30 iconic Indian heritage sites, including the Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb, Red Fort and Agra Fort on Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute,” a press release has said.

“This partnership with Google makes it possible for billions to see and explore our heritage, to take a walk at the Rock Cut Jain Temple, to marvel at the Nagarjuna Konda Buddhist Stupas and to relive history at the Fatehpur Sikri. With the release of these new images, we aim to create an immersive online experience,” said Minister of Culture Chandresh Kumari Katoch.

This is great for promoting our heritage, isn’t it? What do you think? Do you think this will push tourism in India?